Antibody Therapy Shows Promise for Diabetes

An antibody therapy that's approved to treat certain cancers and arthritis has helped prevent -- and even beat back -- type 1 diabetes in mice. The news is heartening to researchers, who had already launched a human trial of the therapy, rituximab. But it also raises concerns that diabetes patients and their doctors will start trying the drug before it's been shown to work in humans. Mark Pescovitz, a transplant immunologist at Indiana University, Indianapolis, and head of the rituximab clinical trial, is heartened by the results.